Former US official joins Huawei consultancy

A former top official in the US defence department during the George W. Bush administration has joined the board of Amerilink, a consultancy that has teamed up with Huawei of China in a bid for a major US telecommunications contract.

Gordon England, who served as deputy secretary of defence and homeland security, was working under the Bush administration in 2008 when the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, or Cfius, forced Huawei to abandon a bid to takeover a US technology company because of security concerns. England said he has joined Amerilink because he was "very impressed" by the company's plans to offer US carriers independent verification that technology manufactured abroad could be used in US communications systems securely. He was invited to join the board by William Owens, the former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who served as a consultant to Huawei and is now chairman of Amerilink. But England said he could not unequivocally vow that Amerilink had the technological capabilities to ensure that Huawei technology was secure.